With all of the springtime storms that have been rolling through our area last week, I thought I would talk about power surges, power outages, and protecting your computer equipment.

Power surges occur when something boosts the electrical charge somewhere in the power lines. This can cause an increase in the electrical current flowing to your wall outlet. A number of different things can cause this to happen (like lightning or big appliances in your home that take a lot of energy to start up.)

There are a couple of things you can buy to help you protect your equipment and help prevent potential damage – Surge protectors and battery backups. You can find these at most retail stores that sell computers or accessories.

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We all get them – Spam emails. These emails come into our Inbox uninvited and tell you that you that you have won a lottery (that you didn’t enter in a country you don’t live in,) promises to help ‘enlarge’ certain areas of our bodies, and win lots of free things. We delete them and grumble a bit, hoping never to see them again. We know that these are phishing scams and that we shouldn’t respond to them.

But some phishing scams aren’t so easy to detect.

For example, you might get an email from an address that looks okay and you can’t tell that it’s “Spam”. Sometimes it says that you purchased something and the email wants you to click the link to verify the purchase. Other times you might receive emails from your “bank” asking you to renew your online banking password or dispute a charge. You may actually bank with this company, and the email sounds alarming so you might be inclined to click and see what they are talking about.

Stop!

Before you click, look at the link the email wants you to click. Is it really leading you to where you think it is?

I found a great article from Microsoft about how to recognize phishing e-mails or links to help you see what I am talking about. Following those guidelines can help you protect you and your computer. Identity theft is a huge problem and “phishing scams” like these effect people all over the country every day.

Be careful about what you click!

Jeanette

Spyware

“Software that secretly gathers information about a person or organization.”

This is another very over used term. Spyware is commonly used to refer to any kind of malicious infection or program. In reality, spyware describes a program that will monitor and log information. This can entail logging key strokes and web surfing activity to name a few. For instance, you open your internet browser to check your bank account. The spyware will notice you have navigated to a site like that and will start to watch the keys you press while you log in with your password. This information is then sent to the spyware creator to be exploited later. This can lead to identity theft and loss of money or other assets.

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Today I am going to talk to you about my new favorite toy – the Netbook!

I consider myself to be an average computer user. I don’t do anything high-tech or complicated with my computers – I like to surf the web and find fun new recipes. I read some blogs and chat with my friends using instant messaging programs. I watch videos on YouTube. I check my bank account and pay bills once in awhile. Nothing fancy! For me, it’s just not worth buying a high powered super laptop that can store a million photos and songs and do video editing, I just want to relax and get online!

And that’s why I love my Netbook. They are fast enough and easy to use for the simple tasks that I do every day. They are smaller, less expensive versions of regular full size laptops and generally operate the same way, but have a simpler design. You can easily just open the box, plug it in, and get online.

Things that you should keep in mind when deciding if the Netbook is a good fit for you:

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